Humans are not to blame for high C02

Sir, – Although I am not in accord with Brian Gafton’s wholehearted acceptance of the ‘science’ and political pressures that are driving what he chooses to call the global warming and net zero agenda, I do welcome his acceptance of the value of open, democratic debate on the topic.

This is a feature that is desperately lacking in so many media outlets, perhaps most notably in the BBC, in spite of their frequent protestations to the contrary.

While Mr Gafton readily admits that he is ‘no expert’’ in spite of the uniquely privileged opportunities that he has experienced in the company researchers in the polar regions, he has clearly been sufficiently

impressed to conclude that “we have to go along with their findings.”

It appears that he accepts that the terms, global warming, climate change, environmental degradation and species extinctions have amalgamated into just one concept that has a single root cause, namely excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, hence the obsession with net zero.

There will doubtless be some readers who may choke on their cornflakes when I reitererate that CO2 comprises just 0.04% of all atmospheric gases of which the anthropogenic contribution is 3.8%.

The remaining 96.2% is emitted from natural sources, namely outgassing from the oceans, plants and animals through respiration and soil through decomposition.

There is also much talk

of the need for a drastic global reduction in ruminant related emissions of the more powerful and persistent greenhouse gases, methane and nitrous oxide even though they comprise just a fraction of one per

cent of the atmosphere. What about that galaxy of other sources such as the untold trillions of termites, cockroaches, beetles and bacteria or the Earth’s wetlands, volcanoes and rocks or the rice paddies

that grow the staple diet that feeds millions? What about our most abundant (albeit shortlived) greenhouse gas of all, water vapour comprising up to 85% of the atmosphere?

Science and political activists persist in concentrating on C02 presumably because it is seen as a product of ‘controllable’ industrial growth even though it is estimated that the combined human greenhouse gas emissions contribute just 0.28% of the greenhouse/global warming effect.

Neil J Bryce. Gateshaw Cottage, Kelso.

A reader says human greenhouse gas emissions are low.